The Houston Rockets looked like a completely different team in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. There’s no denying that literally everything looked and felt like a team who was in the midst of a complete 180 from a game that was played just two days prior.

Typically, after a loss as tough as the one the Rockets endured in Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors, players come together to figure out what went wrong. But for this Houston team, they knew what happened and one player specifically had no interest in talking to anyone.

As ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne revealed, forward PJ Tucker made MVP candidate James Harden a bit mad because he refused to answer his phone after the loss.

“I was so mad I didn’t answer the phone,” Tucker told ESPN. “James was mad I didn’t answer. But it wasn’t one of those where we had to talk it out. We all knew what happened.

“We played like the Rockets tonight. The first game, I don’t know who that was.”

For what it’s worth, can you blame him?

Tucker had just witnessed his team, who won 65 games during the regular season and earned the No. 1 seed in the tough Western Conference, lose home-court advantage to a team who’s won two of the last three NBA Championships. To make matters worse, Tucker struggled mightily in Game 1, shooting 0-for-3 from the field with five rebounds and three fouls.

The frustration from Tucker, and whatever he did during the time when he went radio silent, obviously worked. The veteran came out and set the tone in an impressive 127-105 Game 2 victory, scoring 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting (5-of-6 on 3-pointers) while grabbing seven boards and dishing out four assists.

As a whole, the Rockets looked far more like the team we saw throughout the regular season in this victory. Maybe we can call it jitters or a team who was simply a bit too overly anxious for the first game of the massive series.

Regardless, Tucker and the rest of his teammates proved that this series is far from over, although many were ready to call it after Game 1.

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